Life's Small Moments: Zenyatta's First Foal's First Trim Is the Privilege of Dr. Scott Morrison

Photo by Alys Emson/Lane's End

Farriers really get a feel for their work when they give a foal its first trim. It's a new experience for a young horse. Foals are known to twist and turn and flip and strike and paw with those tiny hooves, which become sharp little hammers at the end of surprisingly powerful little legs.

They don't mean to hurt anyone, they're just not sure what's going on. They'll climb up over your back. They'll want to be able to see their mothers. The mare will want to be able to see her foal. You have to get the sightlines right and you have to work fast. Then it's on to the next one, knowing you have a date with the chiropractor already scheduled in your book.

And guess what? You're going to need it.

But what if the foal you have to trim next is the most photographed, most written about, and most beloved little Thoroughbred in the whole world? What if his mother was the world-class mare who won just as many hearts as she won dollars?

That's what happened to Scott Morrison DVM of Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital in Lexington, Kentucky. He spends a lot of time at Lane's End Farm in Versailles, Kentucky, but the other day, he might have taken just a little bit longer to check out the foal who bounces along at the side of 2010 Horse of the Year Zenyatta.

Photo by Alys Emson/Lane's End

How does he look? Zenyatta's pride and joy, who is a son of the hot sire Bernardini, was walked up and down the stall row so Dr Morrison could evaluate his conformation and foot landing patterns. Notice that the barn aisle floor is constructed of non-slip pavers in a herringbone pattern. Not only are they safe for the mares and foals, but they also have an interesting sound effect. There's not as much ring or echo as you'd hear some flooring. Each hoofbeat offers an audible, distinguished tap. Checking foals means using your ears as well as your eyes.

Photo by Alys Emson/Lane's End

Maybe just a touch more off the outside...Baby Z has an interesting little color pattern on his coronet which means that his hooves may be a mixture of black and white horn when he is older. Zenyatta has a similar pattern.

I congratulated Scott on being the first to lay a rasp on Baby Z's hooves. He agreed that it was special to work at Lane's End and on this particular foal.

Photos for this article are courtesy of Alys Emson at Lane's End Farm; reprinted here with full permission of the photographer, Lane's End Farm and Team Zenyatta. Thanks!

In honor of trimming Zenyatta's foal, Dr. Morrison wrote an article about Thoroughbred foal feet and their care for Zenyatta's blog. The last time I checked, the article had 729 comments.

© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing; Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is a between-issues news service for subscribers to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. Please, no use without permission. You only need to ask. This blog may be read online at the blog page, checked via RSS feed, or received via a digest-type email (requires signup in box at top right of blog page). To subscribe to Hoofcare and Lameness (the journal), please visit the main site, www.hoofcare.com, where many educational products and media related to equine lameness and hoof science can be found. Questions or problems with this blog? Send email to blog@hoofcare.com.  

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30 Days and Counting: Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta Set to Meet in the Apple Blossom Invitational on April 9th

13 March 2010 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog 

This week began the 30-day countdown to the running of the Apple Blossom Invitational, a $5 Million race for fillies and mares carrying 123 pounds at Oaklawn Racecourse in Hot Springs, Arkansas on Friday, April 9. The distance will be 1 1/8 miles.

Enjoy this little promo about the race, which some are calling a "match" race between the undefeated queen of the west, 2009 Breeders Cup Classic winner Zenyatta, and 2009 Horse of the Year Rachel Alexandra, winner at multiple tracks on multiple surfaces in all sorts of weather.

Zenyatta is a year older, bigger, and more powerful, coming from behind; Rachel is more traveled and likes to run on the lead. But up to ten horses will be running in the race, and anything can happen.

First, though, they have to get through today, when each horse has a prep race. Rachel will run in New Orleans at the Fair Grounds where she has been enjoying the winter, while Zenyatta runs at Santa Anita near her home base at Hollywood Park in California. Both races apparently will be televised on HRTV, for those lucky enough to have access to that service. The rest of us can watch it steamed live on www.ntra.com.

The races will go to post within 30 minutes of each other, between 6 and 7 p.m. EST.

Here's the promo for the Apple Blossom:



You can read much more about the big race and follow it at
www.appleblossominvitational.com.

Let's hope they both put in characteristic performances in their races this afternoon and then head to Arkansas ready to run. Will it really happen? I don't know, but the buildup and the excitement will be great for all of horseracing and all of horse sports. We can use it right now.

The Hoof Blog will have lots more information about the mares and about the race and, of course, about their hooves, in the weeks to come.

© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. Please, no use without permission. You only need to ask.

Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is a between-issues news service for subscribers to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. This blog may be read online at the blog page, checked via RSS feed, or received via a digest-type email (requires signup in box at top right of blog page).

To subscribe to Hoofcare and Lameness (the journal), please visit the main site, www.hoofcare.com, where many educational products and media related to equine lameness and hoof science can be found.

Questions or problems with this blog? Send email to blog@hoofcare.com.

Rachel and Kensei: Footwear of the Fleet and Famous during Travers Week at Saratoga

by Fran Jurga | 24 August 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog

With legs like these, you can understand why champion racehorse Rachel Alexandra was chosen to model for a portrait in the August issue of Vogue magazine. She posed for fashion photographer (and horse owner) Stephen Klein soon after winning the Preakness Stakes in May. Sarah K. Andrew snapped this shot in Saratoga a few weeks ago, when Rachel was awaiting a visit by horseshoer David Hinton.

Note: the double or bonded shoe on her left front is an optical illusion; it's a reflection in a puddle on the stall mat. Rachel wears flat made-in-the-USA raceplates in front, according to Hinton and is so well mannered that when he accidentally dropped her foot once, she delicately picked her foot back up and placed it right back in his hand.

What's the definition of pressure in horse racing? Hinton knew he might need to shoe Rachel Alexandra after she was purchased in early May. When the decision was made to run her in the Preakness, it meant that she needed to be shod that day. That's right: the morning of the race. Each nail driven into the hoof was a chance to draw blood; one jerk, one rear and a rasp might scrape her coronet. But nothing went wrong. Nothing has gone wrong, that we know of. She just keeps on running.

Comparing this photo to the Vogue shot, I'd say the combination of a Saratoga lifestyle, Asmussen training, Hinton's hoofcare and Jackson ownership are all agreeing with the filly; her hoof walls look much better after a couple of months at the Spa. Maybe Rachel should consider permanent residence!

NEWS FLASH! Trainer Steve Asmussen announced this morning that Rachel Alexandra will run against older horses in the Woodward at Saratoga on September 5th. The Grade 1 Woodward is a 1 1/8 miles and on dirt, of course. Now, if it could just be on television...


Rachel's stablemate Kensei is headed to Saturday's Traves Stakes for three-year-olds, where he will face Quality Road, Summer Bird and Mine That Bird, among others. Kensei made winning the Jim Dandy Stakes look easy; he did it wearing these Burns Polyflex glue-on shoes. They have the square-toe polyurethane design made for another Asmussen trainee, Curlin, when he was training at Saratoga last summer. Kensei is still carrying some of the racetrack around with him as a souvenir.

Athletic footwear is a big deal in other sports, why am I the only one who seems to care about what these horses are wearing? It does make a difference: just like a basketball player prefers a certain brand of shoe or height of shoe, these horses must have preferences. They just can't tell us. But they can tell a good horseshoer, and they do.

A good horseshoer can see in the way the shoe is worn, and where it is worn and not worn, whether the horse is using the shoe and landing in a functional way, and using the shoe to push off. You can read a horseshoe and you can read a foot, and if you're good at it, you can help keep a horse comfortable and safe on its feet. It's an important job. And it matters. Boy, does it matter.

Many, many thanks to Sarah K. Andrew for her patience and effort in getting these photos and allowing The Hoof Blog to post them here. Sarah became intrigued with her own horse's shoeing and started to notice the feet of horses at the track, much to my delight. Most photographers don't even think to aim the camera at a horse's feet and legs, but there's a lot of information there that a good photograph can convey, as well as the beauty of one of nature's most amazing structures.

© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. No use without permission. You only need to ask. This blog may be read online at the blog page, checked via RSS feed, or received via a digest-type email (requires signup in box at top right of blog page).

Jersey Girl! Rachel Alexandra Doesn't Mind Getting Her Feet Wet As She Scorches the Colts in the Haskell

Jersey Girl! Rachel Alexandra and Calvin Borel win the $1.25 million Haskell Invitational, originally uploaded by Rock and Racehorses.

In Kentucky, they play "My Old Kentucky Home" before the Derby. Before the Preakness in Baltimore, it's "Maryland, My Maryland." The Belmont swings to the tune of "New York, New York."

And when Rachel Alexandra stepped out on the Monmouth Park racetrack on the Jersey Shore today, what song did they play to introduce the field of the $1.25 million Haskell Invitational?

Think about it.

Sure enough. Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run". If that song couldn't get a filly in the mood to fly, what song could? And off she went, toying two or three wide until midway around the turn for home and then whooosssh.

If you enlarge this photo, or go to YouTube and watch the race, you will see that this filly is so particular about her feet that jockey Calvin Borel finished the race with pretty much a clean set of silks. The same cannot be said of the other jockeys.

It was a miserable day with driving rain, lightning, flooding, and (unfortunately), horses down in the early races. I wondered if they wouldn't just load Rachel up and take her home to Saratoga but the weather improved and Rachel gave everyone something to talk about about.

She'll always have a soft spot for Springsteen now. And he'll be in Saratoga to play a concert the week of her (probably, hopefully) next start, the Travers Stakes on August 29.

Thanks to Sarah K. Andrew for this stunning capture of the finish line, where no one but Rachel was in sight.

Rachel's Hoof Blog Confidential: Hind Hooves of the Hottest Filly in the USA

by Fran Jurga | 29 June 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog

The jock in the shower: Preakness Stakes winner Rachel Alexandra enjoyed a bath after her 19-length romp in Saturday's Mother Goose Stakes at New York's Belmont Park. She set a new stakes record, in spite of being eased to a rolling canter by rider Calvin Borel at the finish.

Photographer Sarah K. Andrew (Rock and Racehorses) followed the filly back to the barn and waited patiently for Rachel to do a little dance so you could clearly see at least one of the four fleet feet on this filly.

As far as I know, Rachel is still being shod by David Hinton from Oklahoma.

Rachel has now moved to the Asmussen training camp at Saratoga Springs, where the rest of the racing world will join her in a few weeks.

Hoofcare & Lameness and The Hoof Blog will be there, too. Join me on Tueday nights at The Parting for speakers and social time, and plan to be at our special Hoofcare & Lameness night at the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame on Tuesday, August 4, where we will celebrate the addition of lots more horseshoes and hoof paraphernalia to the RideOn! exhibit on horse health.

Horseshoes from the Rood and Riddle Podiatry Clinic are prominently featured in the new exhibit, along with hoof boots from Castle Plastics and Hoofeez from New Zealand, another handmade shoe by Cornell vet school's Michael Wildenstein, the new hoof pads from Vibram, a Plastinate hoof model from HC Biovision (formerly featured just in photos) and much more. Watch for speaker and sponsor announcements!

Did I just say that Rachel Alexandra was the hottest filly in the USA? Make that the hottest racehorse, period, in the USA, although I would still give equal time to her older rival, Zenyatta. The buzz surrounding these two horses is enlivening a racing scene that had been written off by the doom-and-gloom set a few months ago.

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© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. No use without permission. You only need to ask.

Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is a between-issues news service for subscribers to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. This blog may be read online at the blog page, checked via RSS feed, or received via a digest-type email (requires signup in box at top right of blog page).

To subscribe to Hoofcare and Lameness (the journal), please visit the main site, www.hoofcare.com, where many educational products and media related to equine lameness and hoof science can be found.

Questions or problems with this blog? Send email to blog@hoofcare.com.

Here's Your Silly but Spectacular Preakness Winner!

Like My Silly Face? (Rachel Alexandra), originally uploaded by wendyu.

Two storybook endings. Take your pick. The New Mexico longshot Kentucky Derby winner was chasing the should-she-be-there champion filly to the finish line in this afternoon's second leg of the Triple Crown for three-year-old US Thoroughbreds. Would he catch her? Should he catch her?

There was no catching Rachel Alexandra today, even though her jockey, Calvin Borel, said she had trouble "getting hold of the racetrack" because it was dry and loose and that she preferred a hard, fast track.

If she runs in the Belmont, what will that mean for her feet? She seemed to have a different gait style today, much flatter than when she ran in the Kentucky Oaks. In the Oaks, where she won by 20 lengths, she seemed to run uphill, with her withers high, like a deer, with her front end passing hardly beneath here; today she ran with her back flat. Like every other racehorse.

She wasn't planning to run again in two weeks, let alone against the colts (and one game late-running gelding from New Mexico) but her new owner had a new plan in mind. This is an amazing filly.

Thanks to Wendy Uzelac for this great shot of Rachel mugging while she enjoyed her bath this morning. Let's see what happens next.